


The Old Carrion

by TheUglyCygnet



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Cruise Ships, Gen, Good Cop Bad Cop, Implied Relationships, Minor Violence, Murder, Murder Mystery, Undercover, Vacation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:54:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27304468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheUglyCygnet/pseuds/TheUglyCygnet
Summary: Kei Tsukishima is invited to board a cruise ship by his friend after he was let go of his job as a detective at the Miyagi Police Department. It's not something he thought he would agree to, especially since the cruise line itself seemed just a little bit sketchy, but being in need of a vacation, he accepted.Everything was okay, except for a few creepy corridors here and there, until it wasn't. A murder had occurred in the middle of the night, in one of the most secure rooms of the ship, and there was almost no way to tell who had done it.  Staff and passengers alike pointed fingers at each other, desperately trying, and miserably failing, to find out who it was, and if they were going to make another move.Kei has to catch the killer quick, before another life could be lost, but he has to be stealthy, or he just might end up lying in a pool of his own blood.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Azumane Asahi/Nishinoya Yuu, Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou, Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, Shimizu Kiyoko/Yachi Hitoka, Tendou Satori/Ushijima Wakatoshi, Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	1. Military Umbrella

**Author's Note:**

> This is another Tsukkiyama story that I'm going to be writing while I'm working on another story. Check it out if you want - Call It In The Air. Basically, someone died on board and they have to figure out whodunnit while also staying alive. I hope you'll enjoy the first chapter andddd yeah that's it. Cheers!

Trees swayed back and forth while the wind whistled a little tune for them, the rain giving a deafening round of applause as it collided with the floor beneath it. People ran in multiple directions, trying to find shelter from the sudden rain, though some stayed to feel the chill that hadn't been felt for a long time since the summer season began. 

Kei Tsukishima pulled the hood of his jacket over the blonde hair on his head in a futile attempt to shield his face from the stray drops of rain that somehow managed to get past the one line of defense he had that was his umbrella. His house was still a little bit more distance away than from where he was now, and he wanted nothing more than to lay down and wallow in self pity. He would have loved to stay out in the rain and let the downpour beat down on his back as some sort of free massage from nature, but the events that had transpired that day did nothing to encourage his amazing idea.

He had just gotten suspended from his job as a detective at the 23rd precinct of the Miyagi Police Department. He figured it wasn't all bad, aside from the fact that he almost got fired. It was incredibly frustrating too, because he wished he could prove that he was more than just one failed case, but they wouldn't hear any of it. They never really did like him down at the MPD, always questioning how someone as young as him could end up becoming a detective, and a good one at that. 

The questions always seemed out of place, though. They were mostly heard after he had solved a case, or had first sights on a lead. They called him immature, a lost little boy, which was funny because he had at least seven inches on the tallest guy there, and was probably more mature than all of them combined. Kei obviously heard them, but only dismissed them as sorry attempts to lower his confidence. Instead, it made him satisfied to think that he was on a high enough pedestal that there were people who wanted to knock him down.

He was easily the best detective there. Any case you gave him, no matter how little evidence or how little leads there were, he could solve in a metaphorical flash. You'd think that if he made one mistake, everyone could look past it, right? Wrong. It is a known fact that sharks can smell a drop of blood from over three miles away, and these sharks were willing to chase the young detective down and end his career if it meant that theirs could surface. 

He was called into the captain's office first thing the next day on the account of numerous complaints from his colleagues and some superiors who were said to have witnessed firsthand how immature and naive Detective Tsukishima could be. They shared that the only reason the suspect from the recent case got away was because Kei let his emotions rule over his decision making, setting his common sense and intellect aside. If not for some words of commendation put in by a close friend of his from his previous precinct, he would have been removed from office permanently. 

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, he forced himself to concentrate on getting his keys out of his pocket so that he could unlock the door as soon as he got home. He held his umbrella with his left hand, fighting to keep it close despite the wind, and reached into his pocket with his right. Not feeling anything there, he looked to it in confusion and adjusted his glasses as he swore that that was where he last put it. He had vague recollections of placing a set of keys in his pocket shortly after he arrived at the precinct. But then he also remembered stuffing a candy wrapper into the same pocket and removing his keys in case he ended up accidentally throwing them away later on along with the wrapper. He was unzipping his jacket and putting his keys into the inside pocket on the left.

Ah, so his keys were inside the inner jacket pocket on the left.

He unzipped his jacket and pulled out the keys from the inner left pocket. He smiled a small smile at his little victory, not even thinking that if he let his guard down the umbrella could be blown away. What happened next? Exactly that. His grip loosened ever so slightly on the handle and the wind made it fly all the way across the street and hit a speeding car. 

The driver pressed the heel of her hand to the horn in panicked anger, but didn't bother to stop to tell Kei off. The vehicle sped away as Kei chased after the still intact umbrella. He couldn't help but think that it was one hell of an umbrella if it could survive winds like this and a car like that. 

The rest of his walk home had been just as frustrating, as he had dropped, and almost lost his keys in a sewer drain, lost hold of his umbrella again, and got water splashed onto him by a reckless motorcycle driver. It's almost as if the world wanted him to know that it hated him or something. 

Despite all that, he was finally able to make it to his apartment's front door. He tried to jam the key into the keyhole quickly, wanting to get out of the rain as soon as he could. But again, the world was against him as of the moment, and apparently, he had taken someone else's set of keys from the sewer. Kei couldn't believe he was that unlucky to have dropped his keys down the same sewer that someone else has, and when getting it, didn't even notice that it wasn't his. 

He tried every key on the ring in denial of the fact that he might have to go back all the way across the hellscape of rain to get his actual keys. Of course, none of them ended up fitting, he just wanted to make sure. It didn't help that he was still out in the rain, and it certainly didn't help that his phone was ringing, letting Kei know that someone was calling him. He thought he would answer it when he got inside, but since the odds of that happening seemed to be infinitesimal, he yanked the gadget out of his pocket and answered his phone without checking the caller ID, yelling into the phone speaker, hoping that it would be enough to convey the message that no, he didn't want to be disturbed right now.

"What?!" 

"Woah, hey man. I was just checking up on ya. I heard you got laid-off," the caller explained.

"You- what? How has the news reached you already?"

"Well-"

"Shut up, don't answer that, it was a rhetorical question," 

With a groan, Kei threw the keys on the cement in front of his house in utter frustration at what was happening. He was definitely not in a good mood, that much was clear to the caller who could hear the ironically cheery jingle of the fallen keys from the other side of the screen. 

"Hey, are you still outside in the rain? What's happening right now, buddy? Talk to me," the caller asked.

Now accepting that he wasn't going to be getting in through forcefully jamming the random keys in the lock, Kei positioned himself under an excess part of the roof that protruded way too much from where it was supposed to be, as a result of an engineering failure on the part of the construction workers his landlords had hired. 

He could more clearly feel his shirt stick to him now since the rain no longer poured on him, and he almost thought about going back into the rain again just to get rid of the sticky feeling. He would have taken his shirt off and let it start drying in the wind too, except it was really cold, and he wasn't exactly a big fan of his own body, and he didn't think his neighbors would be either. 

"No, I'm not in the rain anymore. But yeah, I got locked out of my apartment," Kei said.

"Oh. Do you need me to come over and bring you a spare key?"

Kei rolled his eyes, not at his friend's suggestion, but at the fact that he had to rely on someone else to solve his own problem. 

"...that would be great, Kageyama."

Tobio Kageyama had been Kei's friend since they had both met at their Forensic Science classes. After graduating, they went completely separate ways in terms of their careers, Kei pursuing law enforcement, but their friendship remained. Because of that, Kei trusted Kageyama enough to give him a spare key to his apartment that he could borrow any time he got locked out. And yes, it has happened a few times before. 

"Brilliant! I actually wanted to tell you something-"

"Brilliant? What are you? A middle aged science teacher? Oh wait, you are."

The boy's tone of voice shifted immediately from excited to offended as he replied to Kei's insult.

"Hey! I'm proud of being able to share my well earned knowledge with others!"

"Uh huh. Whatever you say, man."

"What? You think I'm not being serious about my job?"

"You seem to have no comment on you being middle aged."

"You seem to have forgotten that you can't get inside your house until I go there and give you your keys!"

"Touche."

It was always funny to piss Kageyama off. It was just so easy to, and he always ended up saying the most bizarre insults that Kei could save for future use. Of course, Kei knew that Kageyama's job at the Kyoto University Of Advanced Science was definitely more of an achievement than being called just a 'science teacher', but he still liked to annoy him about it from time to time. And of course, they both knew Kageyama wasn't middle aged. In fact, he was even younger than the detective. So Kei was actually surprised that he didn't end up using that against him.

"So can I finish what I was about to say now?"

"Go nuts."

Kei leaned his back on the wall, thinking that he would at least listen to whatever had his friend so excited that he had to tell him over the phone even though he was already coming over. He would have complained, but he actually liked the company.

"Okay. So my friend got me a ticket for this cruise ship that's setting sail this August. It's called Old Carry On, I think? He told me they were really planning to go but then something came up."

"Something came up?" Kei repeated, as if it was the most preposterous thing Kageyama had ever said his entire life.

"Yeah, that's what I said too! Anyway, it made me think maybe he was luring me into some scam, so I looked into it and I found out that it's gotten a pretty bad reputation over the past few years."

"Bad reputation?"

"As in people were dissatisfied with the service. But then that's literally it. I never thought Kentaro would be the picky type, but here we are."

The line went quiet for a while as Kageyama paused for any reaction from the blonde. Upon hearing none, he continued,

"But then I thought, 'Is it really safe to board a sketchy cruise ship for the first time alone?' Can you guess my answer?"

"No," Kei deadpanned.

"Sounding really enthusiastic there, buddy. But anyway, it's mad cheap- $2,999. That's only around ¥300,000! I mean, I think it is. I haven't had to use dollars in such a long time. Sure, it's still expensive, but it's cheaper than most cruise lines, isn't it?"

"Sure."

"Perfect. So we agree that it's a great deal, right?"

"Sure."

By now, Kei could already see where this conversation was going. Kageyama was trying to convince Kei to join him on the... Old Carry On? He was trying to show that he wasn't interested in going by giving his friend one word answers. But either Kageyama didn't pick up on it or he was purposefully ignoring it, because he just kept on talking. 

" So I was thinking, and stop me if this sounds ridiculous-"

"It's ridiculous."

"-but I was thinking you could go with me!"

"No."

Kei just let his friend's suggestion hang in the air as he actually considered going, despite having already told the guy that he had no intentions to go. Kageyama hadn't said anything after Kei's declaration either, since he had already known how Kei would process this information.

Kei started thinking that he had nothing else to do anyway, he just lost his job after all. And what harm would it do to anyone to go on a little vacation? Besides, Kageyama had probably already bought another ticket-

"And no, I didn't buy you a ticket yet. You can totally say no if you don't wanna go." 

Kageyama quickly interrupted Kei's thoughts to the point where Kei started to think that his friend could probably read minds. Kageyama's quick interruption of his thoughts also made Kei think that he definitely had already bought cruise tickets, and was just trying not to guilt trip him into going. After a moment of silent deliberation with himself, Kei had made his decision.

"Okay, but what if I said I would go?" Kei asked, hoping his friend would understand that that was his way of saying he would go with him on the cruise without him having to say that he had agreed specifically.

A moment of silence passed as Kageyama processed what his friend just said before breaking Kei's eardrums with a delighted gasp, clearly getting the message that Kei was trying to deliver.

"Really?? You'll go??? Oh, this is perfect!"

Kei heard the screech of car tires across the street and saw a maroon sedan roll slowly into the apartment's designated parking space soon after. Kageyama had finally arrived.

"Sure, sure. Just to be clear though, we are getting separate rooms, right?"

"Oh yeah, for sure! Don't worry about booking and all of that, just leave it to me!"

"Sure."

The car stopped moving, Kageyama had parked it perfectly in one backward motion without hitting anything or anyone. He got out of the car, locking it automatically with a key in the hand that also held a black umbrella to match his straight, black hair.

In his other hand, a single key was wrapped around his finger in polypropylene straw string, and it looked like a child's art project. He held his phone close to his mouth and said the last words of the call before ending it,

"I'll help you pack."


	2. Baggage Check

Kei took his sweet time lining up at the baggage check, knowing he had more than enough time to board the ship after. He had left for the pier an hour and a half early, knowing how painfully long the trip could take, especially since the road was full of people eager to make their summer worth remembering. 

A man had asked Kei to let him go first, since his ship was about to leave. Kei looked at the man's outfit, an untidy suit and tie and a frazzled look on his face, he must be about to miss an important business trip. And since Kei was in a slightly better mood than usual, he decided that he could let the pitiful man go, he still had to wait for Kageyama after all.

Kei had already anticipated his friend's late arrival. Last he heard from the man was that he was 'on his way'. But Kei seriously doubted that. He sat down at the waiting area after retrieving all of his things and took his phone out, hoping no one would approach him to make small talk. His hopes were dashed however, when a boy with a strange haircut and a plastic bag full of junk food approached him and asked him if he had seen a giant man with long hair anywhere around. 

"No, I'm sorry. I just got here. Is he your father?" Kei answered truthfully, not having seen the man at all.

"My father??" the boy asked in total embarrassment and near rage, "If you think I'm some child, I'll have you know that I am a fully grown man here for a vacation from all the damn short jokes I get from my colleagues, only to find that you also think it's funny?"

"I'm sorry, sir. I swear I was just mistaken. You won't hear any more from me," Kei bowed his head, truly sorry but still hoping that the man would be offended enough to go and find help elsewhere. But the man composed himself, sighed, and continued talking to him anyway.

"No, it's alright. I guess I'm just stressed out, sorry."

"Of course."

"Noya!"

A deep male voice called out to who Kei now knew as Noya, and they both directed their attention to the direction of the voice that they had heard to find a man with the exact description that he had given a while ago. He was holding two suitcases in his hand and looked relieved out of his mind. 

"Asahi, there you are!"

"I thought you were going to get food," the big man, Asahi, said, gesturing to the food stalls that were right after the baggage check.

Noya held up the bag of junk food in his hand with a proud smile on his face, as if it was such an achievement to be able to get food by yourself as a 'fully grown man'. His companion seemed to think so as well. He pat the shorter boy's head quite awkwardly and picked up the bags that he had dropped a while ago. Getting ready to leave, he said,

"Oh, so you did. Are we set to board then?" 

"Sure." 

Noya seemed to just remember that he had disturbed Kei, who had now gone back to using his phone. He got the blonde man's attention again and thanked him for his time,

"Hey, thank you for the chat! We'll be leaving now, alright?"

Leaving no time for Kei to respond, the two started speed walking away to the bus to take them to the docks, talking about some ancient artifact or something equally uninteresting. He realized they did look like explorers anyway, the taller one more than the shorter one, but adventurers all the same.

His phone vibrated in his hand, drawing his attention away from the odd pair and to the fact that he was still waiting for his friend. Kageyama Tobio's name was shining across the screen, along with the picture Kei had chosen as his profile photo. It was a picture of him getting his head stuck in between the spindles of the stairs at a college party that they attended together. 

He was about to answer the icon disappeared and it said that the call had been dropped. He figured Kageyama purposely did that just to let Kei know that he was almost there so he stood up to go to meet him at the baggage claim. But then his phone started vibrating again.

He saw that it was Kageyama calling again, and he couldn't help but roll his eyes thinking that Kageyama had stupidly misclicked. He answered the call to inform his friend that he had butt-dialled, but Kageyama seemed to be undisturbed by any of that. 

"Hey why'd you end the call dammit," the black-haired man asked.

"Idiot, you ended the stupid call. Don't try to pin this on me." 

"Dude, my fingers were nowhere near the screen!"

"Whatever, whatever. I'm at the waiting area, farthest from the food stalls. Are you here yet?"

"No, but I swear I'm almost there. Anyway, listen- I did some more research on the ship last night. Apparently-"

But whatever Kageyama had to say was cut off by a beep, signifying that the call had ended once again. Kei shook his head, thinking maybe Kageyama accidentally pressed the end call button with his ear or something. He sat back down, thinking that whatever Kageyama had to say, he could say it when he arrived.

A voice sounded from the P.A. reminding everyone who was going to be boarding The Old Carrion to make their way to a bus right away since the bus would be leaving in 15 minutes.

Kei stared at his turned off phone screen and remembered what Kageyama had said before he got cut off. He was almost here? Well he better be.

\----------

Kei and Kageyama stepped off the bus and onto the pier. In front of them, the ship loomed higher than what they were expecting, casting a dark shadow on them as it blocked out the sun. They could see people walking along the outside corridors of the ship and going in and out of the doors. Some opeople were resting on the railings and leaning into the wind. It would have seemed totally fins, if it weren't for the name being haphazardly painter on the hull. Its once elegant red now looked like dried blood, matching the name perfectly. 

"If I die on this ship Tobio, I'm going to actually kill you," Kei muttered, trying to be kind enough to not let any of the staff hear what he was saying. 

"Hey, that's mean. Besides, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover," Kageyama replied, despite feeling a bit uneasy himself.

As they hauled their bags up the ramp, a man with silver hair and a noticeable mole above his left cheek walked up to them from the inside of the ship pushing a golden bellman with a red wool base. 

"Good afternoon, sirs. May I take your bags?" the man said. He looked fairly cheerful for someone who had to work in a ship like this. His inviting smile and genuine joy seemed contagious and the two men seemed to push back their suspicions about the boat for now. 

"Sure, how much will that be?" Kei asked, glad to get a literal weight off of him. 

"Oh, that won't be necessary. All expenses are already part of the ticket fee," the silver-haired man said, "I'm Sugawara Koushi, but you can just call me Suga."

He gestured back towards the ship, "Shall we go?"

Kei and Kageyama took one last look at the pier behind them, trying to make sure they hadn't left anything behind. They turned back to face the man and nodded, they were ready to head inside. 

"Alright, welcome aboard The Old Carrion, you two."

Suga gave them a brief tour of the important parts of the ship from top to bottom. They started at the rooftop, with the pool and sound system, to the infirmary and common hall, even to the arcade and the gym, until they ended at what was supposed to be Kei's room.

Kei stood in front of the door that clearly had scratches on it, just covered with not-so-thick paint. The doorknob looked newly replaced, shiny and scratch-free, but the area around it looked like it had seen better days with a considerably large chip in the wood. The hinges looked a little bit rusted in the nooks and crannies that the oil couldn't get and the peephole looked clouded, grey, and not functional. 

It was at the lowest floor among four floors, not even including the rooftop and the balcony. It seemed so detached from the rest of the ship that Kei started to wonder why it was even up for use in the first place. 

"Is there nowhere else I can stay?" he asked, hoping that he wouldn't have to spend three weeks in this near-haunted place. Even the hallway lights had seemed to lose their glow despite all the other lights on other floors working just fine. 

Suga scratched his head, "But this was the one you paid for, Kei Tsukishima, right?"

Kei glared at Kageyama, now realizing that he was the one who had specifically chosen for him to be on the scariest floor possible. 

"Ah! That would be my fault! Sorry, could we maybe have another room for him to stay in? I was just playing a prank on him. I thought this room was out of order," Kageyama apologized. 

"I-It was, but we fixed it up since you specially requested it," Suga explained, "I cleaned it myself..."

Kageyama felt extra extra bad now for making the poor guy feel bad and for bringing Kei into this situation.

"It's alright, I'll stay here for the meantime, I'm sure it looks absolutely fantastic," Kei said, hoping the man wouldn't feel so bad after all the damage that Kageyama had done, "But may I please request for a room change if possible? I might find it hard to enter and leave my room when the waves start crashing in through this floor."

"Of course, Sir! I'll get started on the paperwork right away!"

Kei knew there was no way that the waves could reach all the way up to where they were, save for a few splashes bere and there, but he really needed an excuse to get moved somewhere else, and Kageyama didn't seem to have any helpful ideas that wouldn't dig them into a deeper hole. The man in question mouthed a clear sorry to him as Suga started carrying some of the bags off of the bellman and opened the door.

"Would you like help bringing these in?" Suga said, already bringing the bags in anyway. 

"No, that would be fine," Kei still replied as a common courtesy. He took some of his things from the shorter man and set them down on the floor of what looked to be a considerably safe looking room. 

He noticed the fresh flowers on a table in the main room and saw a note next to it. 

"Oh, that's just a little something I wanted to throw in," Suga explained.

He walked towards the door to Kageyama who was very jealous at how nice the room actually turned out.

"You let me know if there's anything else you need, alright? Dinner will be ready soon, so head right on up to the common hall when you're done here, okay?" 

Kei nodded and smiled a smile of gratitude towards the diligent crewmate. He never expected to be able to stay in a place this fancy. He thought it was just going to be a basic vacation. But now, he was thinking maybe he would be able to enjoy it after all.


	3. Weird Kitchen Boy

Kei didn't bother taking out too many of his things as he checked out the room, thinking that he would have to leave soon anyway. He'd have to think of a way to get back at Kageyama for letting him stay at a very suspicious room. 

He got out of the bathroom, just finished putting his toothbrush and other basic hygiene products there. Directly in front of the bathroom door there was a big painting of a silhouette of a ship in front of a red sky. It looked very ominous to Kei, but he was a detective so everything seemed suspicious to him, especially on this already suspicious boat. 

He didn't find any signature anywhere on the piece so he figured it was just some picture printed off of the Internet. He didn't expect any better from the ship anyway, but he appreciated the effort of making it look legitimate. 

Moving on from the painting, he walked to the doors of his balcony and opened them wide, letting the fresh breeze in, his room facing the sea. He was grateful that he didn't have to see the pitiful sight of the hull and its worn down shape or the pier and its depressing aura. He had nothing but bright skies ahead of him. Well maybe not now since the sun was setting, but you get the picture. He was going to make the most of this vacation and then he would get back to the MPD with a clearer mind with no room for error.

He walked forward and leaned on the railings, taking in everything. He heard giggling come from the balcony of the cabin above him and looked up. Of course he couldn't see who it was, but he knew that there had to be at least two people having a conversation. He recognized one of the voices as the bellman boy from a while ago, Suga. The other voice was familiar as well, but he couldn't quite place where he'd heard it before. After straining to listen for a while but picking up nothing, he decided they weren't worth eavesdropping. So he took out his headphones and blasted some Avril Lavigne as he watched the waves crash into each other and fall flat before returning as even bigger waves right after. 

He started thinking about his suspension as he observed the lights from the cabin above him reflect on the water. He remembered cornering the suspect in an alleyway before the guy started begging him not to arrest him since he only stole because he didn't know what else to do. Kei had hesitated for a second to think about it, and then the suspect got away. 

He was too emotional, the others had said, all to be expected from a kid like him. It was such a small case, but they were able to convince the people higher up that it would cause more problems in the future. And so, he was suspended.

He remembered the man he had allowed to pass earlier, and the bellman who he had tried to sympathize with. They seemed so happy when he had helped them. Was showing emotion really that much of a problem to a lot of people? 

_Anyway, once they take him back, he'll catch that man for sure- with no hesitations this time._

Kei suddenly heard the low sound of the ship announcing that it was going to start moving. He felt the boat stagger forward and saw the waves follow it as it travelled. This was actually happening. 

He stayed for a little while to watch for anything interesting to happen, but nothing in particular came up and he was starting to feel a little bit seasick, so he decided to go up to the common hall to get some food anyway.

He exited his room, making double triple sure to lock the door behind him since he wasn't sure the surveillance worked on that floor. He immediately noticed the security camera of the hall pointed directly at his door, but there was no signal like a blinking light or anything to assure him that it was on. 

"Well damn, okay. Guess I was right," he said to himself.

He walked towards where he remembered the stairs were, at least the stairs that he went down a while ago. On his way, he noticed many more scratches on the wall, most of them seemed to be hidden under new wallpaper, but very clearly seen at the bottom on the baseboard where the walls met the floor. As he followed these scratches, he found himself at the stairs finally, but there was something else there that he hadn't paid much attention to before. 

Suga had informed him that he was on the lowest floor of the ship, but right there in front of him was another set of stairs going down to a lower floor. He could see a door at the end of the stairs, but it wasn't so clear if it was locked or not. What he could see however, was the sign that was tied around both stair posts with red yarn that read: "CARRION PERSONNEL ONLY, KEEP OUT".

The sign looked like it was written by a child who had nothing but a yellow crayon. But it certainly did its job in warning Kei to not go any further. Kei took his phone out so that he could zoom in and take a closer look at the door, but it was just too dark.

After a long time of trying to get the flash to angle just right he started to feel a presence in the hall with him. He couldn't tell from where or even hear anything that indicated there was anyone else, but he felt it- someone was watching him. 

He tried to act as if it didn't bother him, putting his phone down and pretending that he had suddenly remembered that he needed to meet up with someone upstairs. With one last look towards the suspicious door he walked over to the stairs going up and tried to put as much distance as he could between him and the creepy staircase.

Upon arriving at the top of the stairs he suddenly remembered that he had no idea where to go to get to the common room. He remembered it being somewhere at the back of the ship, but other than that he had no idea. So he decided to keep walking until he could find someone to point him in the right direction. Maybe if he was lucky, he could find Kageyama and they could go eat together.

He saw a door at the end of the hallway now that looked like it would be the door to an important room and figured that it would be the common room. 

As he walked closer, he could hear faint, muffled jazz music coming from the closed room. He even saw the silhouettes of other people walking around inside, laughing and having a great time. He was about to take his phone out again to call Kageyama and see if they could meet up but his phone flew out of his hand when someone bumped into him from behind.

The phone landed in front of him, his plans to call his friend totally dashed. He glanced behind him quickly to see who had bumped into him and saw only the shocked, guilty face of a green-haired guy who looked like one of the kitchen staff. Deciding that retrieving his phone was important than confronting the poor kitchen boy, he immediately turned around and knelt down to go pick his phone up.

But as soon as his fingers brushed against his own phone, the boy quickly appeared in front of him as if he had teleported there, and picked the phone up from the ground for him. 

"I'm so sorry Sir," the boy apologized, offering the cellphone to a bewildered Kei, "Here's your phone."

Kei looked behind him again as he started to stand, thinking maybe the person in front of him wasn't the same person who had bumped into him, but there was no one else around.   
As he looked back at the apologetic staff member, he realized that the man was completely unaware of what he had just done. Or if he was aware, he was really good at hiding it. 

Kei took his phone from the weird man's outretched hand, keeping an eye on the boy in case he were to 'teleport' again, but no such thing happened. He immediately stuffed his phone back in his pocket, ready to head towards the room that was full of people, thinking that he would rather get to a place where there would at least be witnesses if he died.

Between the weird ship, the weird room, the weird stairs, and now the weird crewman, Kei wanted nothing more than to get off the ship, dash to his house, and lock the door behind him immediately. He usually wouldn't get scared too easily, two years on the field did that to people, but it was like something forcefully instilled fear in him at that moment.

Kei was pulled out of his trance as he felt someone shaking his shoulder, trying to get his attention, "Are you alright, Sir? Do you need me to get you to the Infirmary?" the crewman asked.

Kei took a few more seconds to process what the boy had asked him, but as soon as he did, he brushed off the boy's hand from his shoulder and replied, "No, I-I'm fine."

He still felt like something was wrong. 

"O-oh, okay then..."

The crewman started fiddling with the cuffs of his sleeves, not really knowing what to say now. Kei didn't either, but he supposed the crewman had to go back to working now, it was his job after all. 

He was about to suggest that the boy go back to what he was about to do before the boy himself spoke up.

"I'm really sorry I bumped into you... it's just that it's my first day on the job and I don't really know the place that much..."

The boy's arm now hung from the back of his neck as he rubbed it and chuckled nervously, totally sealing the whole clumsy kitchen boy trope he was selling.

Now that Kei was able to look at him more closely, he realized just how- for the lack of a better word- cute this guy was. His green hair was obviously the most noticeable feature about him, but he also had a smile that could shine through galaxies. He looked to be around the same age as Kei, 19, 20 maybe, and his olive brown eyes were just a bit darker than the color of the freckles that were scattered across his face. 

"Um, it's fine, really," Kei started, hoping his face didn't give too much away about what he was really thinking, "I know how stressful it can be when you start a new job..."

"Heh, thanks..." 

The boy looked at Kei as if he was expecting him to say something. It was then that Kei remembered that he was looking for someone to ask for directions. Even though he was pretty sure the room that was a stone's throw away was the common hall, he still wanted to make sure. And, if he could spend a little more time with this guy, it might just make for an interesting cruise after all.

"By the way, do you know where I can get dinner around here?" he asked.

The crewman immediately let his hand drop to his side as he straightened his posture in an attempt to look more professional, proud that he could actually be of help to a passenger.

"Of course! It's right this way."

The boy turned around and started walking towards the common hall, assuming that Kei would follow behind him, and he did.

As he stared at the back of the boy's head, he couldn't help but realize how quickly his doubts and fears went away, despite how persistently he suspected something was wrong. Now, he merely chalked it up to his paranoia, maybe a trick of the light, but there was no way that this sweet boy could ever make him feel unsafe. 

So he followed him into the common hall, and decided that right now, he could set aside being a detective. It was time to take a legitimate break on this cruise.


	4. Chocolate Donut

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo I know that the characterization and everything is wayyy off, with Kageyama being a caring, energetic friend and Tsukishima being bothered by emotions, so I'm just gonna come clean and say that I have _not_ been in the fandom for a loooong time now and I guess I've just been using the characters as placeholders?? But not really?? Also this might be a crack chapter maybe probably possibly so yeah thanks, happy readinggg
> 
> Cheers!

The bright light coming from the chandelier of the common hall was a stark contrast to the dimly lit hallway outside. Kei was nearly blinded by it as he stepped in, following behind the green-haired kitchen boy. That reminded him, he hadn't actually figured out his name yet. 

He was about to ask too, until a short girl with light blonde hair and clothes that matched the kitchen boy's uniform approached them with a frantic look on her face.

"You have to come quick, the kitchen is on FIRE!"

She started pulling on the boy's arm to get him to follow her, and for good reason since Kei was starting to smell burning.

Thinking it was rude to leave a passenger so suddenly, the crewman turned his head to where Kei was standing to apologize as he struggled to pull against the scared kitchen girl's grip.

"I'm really sorry, Sir! I have to go and take care of this right now-"

The girl continued to pull him away, and just like how it is in movies, he started getting lost in the crowd of people.

"I'll see you around!" was the last thing Kei heard from him before he was completely gone.

Now left all alone with people he'd never met before, he started to feel completely exposed. He looked around and saw many people who were already socializing with one another as if they'd known each other for years. Kei wondered if they had, after all, known each other for years. 

He also noticed some people who were wearing what the crewman and the kitchen girl were wearing, but they didn't look like they were working at all. They acted like they were also passengers of the cruise. Kei thought it was utterly unprofessional, but he wasn't so surprised considering the state of the boat and the behavior of the other two staff that he had previously met. The clumsy crewman and the unnecessarily noisy kitchen girl were a totally different type of people compared to what other cruise ship crews would be like, he figured the rest would be the same. 

He walked to the food line, thinking that it was going to be a long time before he would eventually find his friend among so many people. He took just some of the appetizers that were laid out, bite-sized pieces of bruschetta topped with meat and veggies, shrimp dipped in cream cheese, and a few other things. After that, he completely skipped the other food options for the main meal and went straight for the desserts. 

He got everything he could, from a slice of cookie batter cheesecake, to marbled brownies topped with vanilla ice cream with an overload of rainbow sprinkles, not caring if he could finish it all or not. 

He also picked a chocolate-glazed donut off of a tower lined with other flavored donuts as he was about to leave the table. Upon realizing that there was no more room on his plate, he decided to stick it in his mouth until he could find a good place to sit. 

He turned to leave quickly, seeing that the person behind him in the line, a weird guy with a buzz cut and a intense expression, had been waiting for his turn at the dessert table. As he did, however, he almost bumped into the one person he had been looking for for the whole night, Tobio Kageyama. 

"Woah! Watch where you're-" Kageyama started, stopping when he found his friend's face under all the sugar. 

"Are you really going to eat all that?" he continued, making conversation as if they had been with each other the whole night and not just bumped into each other. 

Kei could only shrug and get out three syllables of a reply, probably, "Yeah, why not?" as the donut was still stuck in his mouth. 

By now, the guy behind Kei had been waiting for the two to get out of the way so that he could get to the drinks station, but there they stood, taking their sweet time as Kageyama argued about how that much sugar was bad for anyone's health and Kei grunted in response. 

"Hey!" the guy with the buzz cut said, "Let's keep the line moving, yeah??" 

He stepped forward as the detective and the teacher made way for him, purposefully making his steps heavy and loud to show them that he really wasn't happy about this.

Kageyama bowed his head and apologized and Kei followed after. 

"Sorry, Sir."

"Mngfng, Ghh."

After a whole two seconds of watching the guy leave, Kageyama immediately tore the donut from Kei's mouth and took a biiiiig bite from it exactly where Kei had left his teeth marks. 

"This is not good for you, you can't keep eating like this!" he said, his mouth full of DONUT. 

Kei set all his food back down on the dessert table, leaving some of them to topple over onto the other foods on display. None of the workers reprimanded him either.

"Give me back my donut!" Kei said, chasing after Kageyama who had started running away from him with the donut in his hand. 

"Only if you eat some real food!"

They started bickering back and forth while chasing each other around the room. Kageyama had lost the donut long ago, but Kei kept on chasing him. He would've stopped, thinking it was just too childish to cause a ruckus, but no one seemed to be bothered by them as they continued their own conversations and ate as if there weren't two grown men running around and pushing each other like little kids. 

Well, except for one person.

"Excuse me, Sirs. You might want to keep your voices down."

The two stopped their shoving and snapped their heads around to find a short, orange-haired crewman hanging a table napkin on his arm, parallel to his chest, trying to get their attention.

Now, the people around them who had once ignored them, were suddenly either interested or annoyed at them. Whatever it was, they were definitely paying attention to them now. Kei noticed it, but he wasn't able to say anything about it though, as Kageyama straightened up and came face to face with the crewman to give him a few words.

"..." 

"Sir?" the crewman asked, also looking like he was getting ready to fight.

"I..." Kageyama started.

"AM SO SORRY!! I didn't mean to act so uncivilized!"

Kageyama apologized repeatedly to the short crewman, taking both his hands and giving him a handshake.

Kei looked at his best friend in shock, surprised that he would ever use that word in a conversation out of work, but also because he was sure that this interaction would've ended with at least a bloody nose.

The crewman didn't look confused by the sudden mood change at all. A smile started to grow on his face as he vigorously shook Kageyama's hands too, the table napkin now having been launched somewhere on the ground.

"I'm Tobio Kageyama!!"

"Nice to meet you, Sir Tobio Kageyama!!! I'm Shouyo Hinata!!"

The crowd started applauding for them as they saw that a possible fight had been averted and a new friendship had been made.

"Do you want to go get a drink, Sir?" the crewman, now known as Hinata, asked Kageyama.

"A drink would be amazing, but please, call me Tobio."

And with that they walked off to the bar as if they had known each other for the longest time. 

Meanwhile, Kei was still frozen in shock in the middle of the room. That must have been the weirdest encounter he had ever had in his entire life. He very loudly shouted, "WHAT?!!" but no one really seemed to care, it's not like Kageyama could hear him since he was out there getting chummy with his new boyfriend or whatever. 

He sat down on a couch that was nearby and just sunk into the cushions, rubbing his hands over his face and through his hair. He set aside his glasses for a while as he did so, not wanting to accidentally scratch them. 

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a deep voice sounded from beside him on the couch. It turns out, he had company,

"Don't feel too bad four eyes, that's just the allure of the staff here at The Old Carrion."

Kei turned to his right to find two eyes looking at him expectantly for an answer. Or he would've, if he was wearing his glasses. All he really saw was just a nest of black hair and an obnoxiously wide grin plastered onto someone's face. He didn't think he was going to like this person at all.

Using the sleeve of his shirt, he wiped his glasses clean of fingerprint smudges and any dust that caught on them and put them back on. Now looking at the guy's face, he decided that he _really_ didn't like him.

"Are... are you talking to _me_?" Kei asked.

Kei was forced to scooch closer to the spikey black-haired guy as now a spikey _white_ -haired guy sat on his left and started talking to him as loudly and as energetically as he could as well. 

"Of course he is, who else has four eyes and was just abandoned by their friend to go with one of the staff on this ship?" 

Now, a thin, curly black-haired guy pulled up a chair and sat right in front of him, pulling up his legs and resting them on the knees of the other black and white-haired man, completely exposing _everything_ to Kei who was directly in front of him. He started talking too.

"Sounds way too specific to be anyone else if you ask me." 

Kei was now sandwiched in between three of the weirdest people he'd ever seen, and he really wished he could leave them and just go back to his room. He started to stand and try to worm his way out of whatever they were trying to rope him into.

"Uhh... yeah, no, it's fi-" 

But he was yanked back down onto the couch as the white-haired guy suddenly yelled into his face,

"HEY! We can get you someone too. You're the straight type, right?"

"Yeah, our manager is totally gorgeous, a real head turner," the spikey black-haired guy agreed.

"Your manager?" Kei clarified.

It was then that he noticed that the three were actually wearing the same uniform as the other crewmen he had previously met, or at least it looked remotely like it. They weren't quite wearing it properly. 

"Yeah, Shimizu Kiyoko. You know her?" the guy in front of Kei asked, leaning forward to stretch his legs as if he was diving into the space of the couch where Kei was and getting dangerously close, "Pull, please."

Kei hesitated for a while before grabbing the guy's wrists and pulling him towards him. 

"Thaaaat's the stuff."

Kei tried to focus more on the conversation he was trying to have with the Powerpuff Boys rather than the awkward situation in front of him. So he continued,

"Um, I don't mean to intrude or anything, but if she's so drop dead gorgeous, why don't any of you guys ask her out?"

"Hm? Oh, we're all gay." 

The man in front of him shook Kei's hands off of his wrists as he sat back up, content with the amount of stretching he got done to tell him that they were all, in fact, gay. 

Kei couldn't help but notice that the three were awfully chummy with each other and him, and it dawned on him that they might all just be in a polyamorous relationship. 

"Gay...for each other?"

His comment earned a split second of silence before all three men around him burst into boisterous laughter. Well, all except for the curly-haired boy.

"BAHAHAHAAH!! I wish!"

"Could you imagine if we ever got together, eh Akaashi??"

"Haha, yeah. As if, right?"

You didn't have to be a detective to notice that the boy, who Kei now knew as Akaashi, didn't fully agree with the other two's stand on getting in a relationship with each other. Did that mean he actually liked both of them?

He saw Akaashi's eyes dart multiple times to the spiky white-haired guy as the two laughed and he awkwardly chuckled.

_Oh. So just that one._

"Haaahh... that was a good one. Haven't had a laugh like that in years!"

The spikey-haired boys wiped tears from their eyes, finally calming down after laughing for a full minute. Desperate to change the subject, Akaashi decided that he would bring up something else.

"Kuroo over here's got a little crush on someone though."

"Oh yeah! Isn't it that photographer-"

"BROkuto!" The guy named Kuroo said, reaching over Kei to flick the white-haired guy's forehead for spilling his secret.

"OWWW!!! THAT HURT!"

With that, Kei's wish came true and Kuroo ran away as "Brokuto" chased after him, Akaashi following closely behind. Kei rolled his eyes as he watched them leave. They hadn't even been considerate enough to introduce themselves.

Kei stood up, his stomach grumbling and reminding him that it was still dinner time and that he needed to eat. It didn't help either that his head seriously hurt from all the weird characters he had met today. It was like he was the main character in some movie where there were too many characters to count so the writer had to make up all these weird personalities for each one just so they wouldn't be forgotten. 

With too many thoughts in his mind, he didn't notice that he was about to bump into someone until he felt himself weakly collide with another person. As the person he walked into turned around, he caught sight of his brown hair, a pale turquoise dress shirt, and an all-too-familiar smirk. 

"Detective Tsukishima! I wasn't expecting to see you here!"

_Yeah, this wasn't going to end well._


	5. Cordially Invited

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo I tried as much as I could to not write everyone in this chapter out of character, but it just kinda needed to be done and I just needed to over exaggerate some reactions so that the conversations and dialogue didn't end up too flat. Buuuut yeah anyway fifth chapter, let me know if you can find any spelling or grammatical errors and I'll fix them right up. So yah. Cheers!

"Detective Tsukishima! I wasn't expecting to see _you_ here!"

_Yeah, this wasn't going to end well._

Kei came face to face with the very bane of his existence, his extremely unfriendly foe, for him, possibly the worst person who had ever lived on the planet Earth, none other than Detective Tooru Oikawa.

"You- what are you doing here?" Kei blurted out, not able to keep his disgust and loathing for his fellow detective hidden from the person directly in front of him.

"I could ask you the same thing, flagpole," Oikawa smirked.

"Are we gonna have a problem here, flat-ass?" 

"You've been looking at my ass?" Oikawa placed his hand on his chest in mock surprise, knowing it would only aggravate Kei even more, and it did.

Kei opened his mouth to fire another insult, knowing that it was the only thing he could do to counterattack since he couldn't resort to violence, especially not in public, not when his badge and his dignity was already hanging by a fine thread.

But before he could, a hand landed on Oikawa's shoulder and stopped Kei midsentence. Kei followed the arm to find that the face it was connected to was the face of a very close friend of his, which was rare considering he didn't have many friends in total. Who was this close friend of his, you ask?

"Da-uh, Captain Sawamura! You're here too?" Kei asked.

"Detective Tsukishima? Is that really you? ˢᵗʳᵃᶦᵍʰᵗᵉⁿ ʸᵒᵘʳ ᵇᵃᶜᵏ. It was already so much of a coincidence to find Detective Oikawa and his husband here!"

Daichi Sawamura had been the very person to inspire Kei to become a detective when he graduated from college. Kei had originally planned on becoming a coroner or joining Kageyama in teaching, but Daichi had been there to show him the wonders of being on the field and the honor that came with the badge. 

It wouldn't surprise Kei if it was later revealed that Daichi was the one who put in a good word for him that caused him to only be suspended after losing the case.

"Oh, he's not my husband yet, Captain, but we're getting there," Oikawa said, showing off his ring. 

Officer Sawamura stepped forward, completely ignoring Oikawa's remark to embrace Kei in a tight, bone-crushing hug,

"It's good to see you, good to see you."

As Daichi stepped away from the hug, he turned and called out to a tall, green-haired guy behind him who looked like he was waiting for his turn to be included in the conversation. 

"This is Wakatoshi Ushijima," he introduced, "my longtime friend and companion. We met during a convention in London and he seemed to be the only one who could understand my accent, so here we are now. Come on," Daichi motioned for the guy to come forward and introduce himself.

"Hello," he uttered simply. For such a big person, he seemed to have so little to say.

"AHAHA! That's our Wakatoshi, not much for words..." Daichi chuckled heartily, not once letting the conversation fall awkward on any end. Even Kei started to feel his tension dissipate as the conversation continued.

"Wakatoshi here actually agreed to accompany me on this cruise this year with his friend, Satori Tendou," Daichi continued, now pointing across the room at a red-haired guy who was scarfing down all of the chocolate ice cream that he could find and scaring away anyone else who dared to get close to him or stop him from doing so.

"He seems like a fun person to be around!" Oikawa grinned widely, it would seem genuine to anyone else, but to Kei it was dripping with sarcasm. 

"Thank you. I think so too," Ushijima smiled a small smile at the compliment toward his friend, especially since he agreed that Tendou was fun to be around. 

"Hey, congrats on the case by the way," Daichi said, facing Kei again and turning the conversation back in the detective's direction.

"Sorry, Sir?" Kei asked, not quite sure what he was talking about as he hadn't solved any cases recently and had even been suspended.

"I know, I know. You let the culprit get away but hey, at least you caught the guy in the end, right?"

As Kei contemplated exactly how Captain Sawamura could have come up with the idea that he had solved the case that was taken away from him, Tendou called from the other side of the room for Ushijima. He needed help cleaning up the chocolate mess he made. And considering none of the staff seemed responsible enough to help, he called on one of the people he could rely on, 

"Wakatoshi-kuuuuun~"

Ushijima politely bid his farewells as he went off to help his friend, leaving the conversation that just started.

"Isn't he just the sweetest?" Oikawa gushed, clasping his hands together. Kei almost gagged.

"Oh!" Daichi suddenly exclaimed, "I've got a great idea! Why don't we all get to talking with each other more? It sure has been a long time since I've heard from you guys."

"That would be amazing, Captain!" Oikawa replied.

"Oh please, call me Daichi. We aren't at work anyway and this is a vacation after all."

"Thanks... Daichi... but I might not be able to make it. I've got-" Kei started to say.

"Got what, Kei?" Oikawa cut him off, slinging his arm around Kei's shoulder. Kei cringed at the use of his first name by someone who didn't earn the right to, but he had to let it go because Oikawa acted like it was nothing, "Come on! Don't worry, we'll be there, Daichi."

"Great! I'll start waiting for you guys in my room later at... 8:00 should be fine. Don't worry about the food or drinks, it's all on me."

At that moment, something seemed to catch Daichi's eye from behind Kei. He turned around and saw Suga, the bellman boy frantically mopping up the floor after someone had spilled some water there. 

"I- uh, I gotta go. I'll see you guys later, alright? Kei? Tooru?" Daichi clarified, smile hopeful and happy. 

"Yes, Sir."

"Yes, Sir..."

With a final wave, he stepped away to help Suga. 

It finally made sense to Kei now. The people who he heard giggling on the balcony must have been the two of them. It wasn't something he'd really expect, but nothing was going normally today anyway.

"So," Oikawa started, pushing himself off of his fellow detective and lifting a heavy weight off of Kei's shoulders, "You're going, aren't you? Favorite student?" 

"What are you talking about, Trashykawa?" Kei said, massaging his shoulders and trying to ignore Oikawa until he got tired of trying to make conversation so that he could leave and go back to his room.

"Oh, nothing. I bet you were wondering all about that case though, huh?" 

That caught Kei's attention. He was totally in the dark about why Daichi had congratulated him for a case that he didn't solve.

"...What did you do, Tooru?" Kei asked.

"Nothing! I'm shocked that you would think that..."

"Tell me-"

"Look, beanpole, I just solved your case for you, and told Daddy Daichi you did it. You should be thanking me, actually," Oikawa said, sounding pretty serious this time.

"I don't believe it," Kei shot back, "Why would you do something like that for me?"

Oikawa took the time to snatch a glass of cider from the tray of a waiter that passed by and took a sip. Upon finding that he didn't like the taste, he spat directly back into the cup. 

"Why wouldn't I? I'm still your friend, you know," Oikawa answered, after wiping his spit from his mouth with his sleeve.

"Like hell you are."

"I'm not lying! I don't want anything in return. I just thought you would like to impress the captain one more time before he steps down."

This was the first time Kei heard about Daichi leaving. He didn't even know he was considering it in the first place. He tried to think of any reason why he would, but then he wasn't even sure if he really was leaving, so even if he absolutely didn't want to encourage conversation with the stupid detective, he just had to ask,

"What do you mean?"

"Oh? Haven't you heard? He's going to settle down with some chick and live off of a bakery's profit or something."

"No he isn't."

"Yes he is, you dumb bullfrog! I know you hate me, but take my word as gospel, okay? Daichi Sawamura is quitting and his spot is going to be open for grabs."

"What?" Kei scoffed, "And you're going to replace him? I'm sure you know, but there's a whole process. It's not going to be that easy."

"It can be, if you know how to pull the strings."

Kei knew just what Oikawa meant when he said that. It was no secret that Oikawa was one of the most influential people when he put in the effort. It's not like he used his influence for anything bad, only to push himself higher so that he could do more good. But one guy having that much power would start to make you doubt his intentions after a while. 

"No. You're lying. Get out of my face," Kei ordered, as if he couldn't just leave himself.

A shorter guy with dark brown hair and the number 4 on his aquamarine jersey approached the two of them as they argued, wanting to check up on his fiancee as soon as he saw conflict arising. 

"Ah, Hajime! There you are," Oikawa said, greeting the man and linking their arms together, "Kei, this is my fiancee Hajime Iwaizumi. Hajime, this is my coworker Kei Tsukishima."

Iwaizumi extended his hand to Kei for a handshake, "Nice to meet you, Kei."

"Pleasure," Kei replied, not bothering to accept the handshake, "Listen, if you have nothing useful to say, then I'll just be on my way, yeah? Good night." 

He swiveled on his heels and head straight for the door, not bothering to wait for a reply from any of the two people. As he left, he saw Kageyama talking to the orange-haired boy at the bar, Daichi having a chat with some other people, Suga going back into the kitchen, Ushijima and Tendou pushing all the melted ice cream under the carpet, the guy with the buzzcut going back for seconds, Asahi and Noya piling food onto their plates, the blonde haired kitchen girl standing fearfully in the corner, the Three Musketeers playing with some of the light switches in the room, and everyone else minding their own business. 

What he didn't see, however, was the green-haired crewman who emerged from the kitchen with a plate of strawberry shortcake, looking for Kei so that he could give it to him. 

As soon as he got out of the common hall, he sped to his room, determined to get this trip over with so he could get back to doing something worthwhile with his life outside the ship and so that he wouldn't have to listen to and see all these bizarre things. 

When he got to his room, he realized that he was feeling extremely dizzy, which was weird because he knew he didn't easily get seasick or carsick, so he opened up the balcony door to let some fresh air in.

He didn't bother getting into bed after that, plopping down onto the sofa without even changing. He closed his eyes and fell asleep, completely forgetting about his captain's invitation.


	6. Utter Despair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all, another chapter is here! Proceed with caution, but do not fear, for I have placed warnings for where there will be blood or anything else. If you see the !!!WARNING!!! signs then the moments after those and before the !!!WARNING END!!! are possible triggers. Thank you so much to everyone who is reading andddd Cheers!

Kei felt his body jolt awake as his eyes remained closed. If you looked at him from any other point of view, you'd think he was still sleeping soundly. Honestly, even he might have thought so too. But he knew he was awake because he felt the texture of the soft sheets of his bed and smelled the scent of being out on the open water. 

He also heard something, that is how he woke up after all. It wasn't something as subtle as the sound of dragging a knife on wood, or the squelching of a body every time a knife would be plunged into it. No, Kei heard, an undoubtable, unequivocal

Scream.

Kei tore his eyes open, as his exhaustion willed him to just go back to sleep as someone might have just seen a mouse and got scared. But he had heard that scream too many times in his life, from rookie detectives who've just found their first body, to family members who've lost their loved ones.

That was the sound of utter despair. 

He dashed outside, realizing he was still wearing what he wore to the hall a while ago, but not caring in the slightest. He slapped on his glasses and stuffed his feet in his shoes before going outside and making double, triple, quadruple sure this time that his door was _definitely_ locked, especially after that bloodcurdling scream.

He didn't know exactly where he was going, just that he was going in the general direction of the scream. It sounded like it came from somewhere above him, so he decided to head up to the floor above. He almost tripped on his way up the stairs, and be blamed it on exhaustion.

He didn't even know why he was tired, he had done nothing the whole day that would wear him out this much. His glasses were also clouded from him carelessly setting them on a desk somewhere before falling asleep, so that must have also been why.

Once he reached the top of the stairs, he wondered if he should go up one more floor or check out this floor for the origin of the scream. But he didn't need to wonder any longer because he saw a group of people forming a crowd at the end of the hallway. 

Almost tripping over some folds in the carpet, he made his way over to the crowd, wanting ro know what had caused so many people to wake up. There, in the doorway, he saw a mess of orange hair, and a quivering mess of a boy. 

It was the crewman from a while ago, the one who had asked them to stop being so noisy, Hinata. He was crying... but why? Kei even noticed that Kageyama had knelt down beside him, rubbing circles into his back and trying to calm him down. What the hell? They were that close already?

"Hey, uhh. What- what happened here? Why is he crying?" Kei asked, to no one in particular. The voice of the first person to reply to him came from his left, and he immediately turned to them for answers.

"What do you mean what happened?" It was Kuroo, the spikey black-haired crewman from the common hall.

"It's obvious isn't it? He's the one who found the body..." Kei turned to the right to see the next person, it was someone he hadn't met before. He had dark brown hair parted in the middle, kind of like curtains, and dull brown eyes that made him look like he didn't care for much.

"The body? What body?" Kei asked, still not sure he was understanding the situation correctly. 

Nobody answered him, however, and he was left to push past the crying boy and into the room to see what was going on for himself.

As soon as he made it past them, his eyes took a minute to focus on what he had just witnessed. He blamed his damn glasses for being so damn cloudy, or was it his mind that had gotten clouded in denial? 

He couldn't believe it. He felt like he shouldn't have gotten up, he should have stayed in bed and woken up to a better situation. Why did this happen? _How_ could this happen? How could everybody be so calm while _he_ lied there in a pool of his own blood...

As Daichi Sawamura lied in a pool of his own blood?

Kei didn't know how much longer he stood there. He could barely hold himself up anyway. His knees were shaking and his head was spinning. It's not like he hadn't ever seen a dead body. No, he's seen multiple dead bodies. He's seen bodies that were torn up more than this.

But to have it happen to Daichi... his friend...

"Sir? Sir!" 

Kei snapped out of his trance as he heard someone call out for him from the doorway.

"Huh?" he asked, almost mindlessly.

"I was just telling everyone to get back inside their rooms until we can sort this out," the man said.

Kei looked the guy up and down. He looked like he was woken from a peaceful sleep as well. His voice was low and croaky, and his eyes struggled to stay open. Despite this, he managed to uphold a perfect posture and an authoritative air about him.

"Who... who are you?" Kei asked again. Not really waiting for the answer, but scrambling for time to think about what was happening.

"I'm Chikara Ennoshita. I'm the captain of this ship?"

"Oh. R-right."

They stood there, Ennoshita waiting for Kei to get a move on so that he and the other staff could start checking attendance and accountability. 

"I'm sorry. I..." Kei started  
But he caught himself before he could say anything more, afraid that his voice might start to quiver if he said anything more. 

Instead, he nodded his head and made his way back to his room, following what Ennoshita had said. 

Nothing happened much for the rest of the night, other than Akaashi knocking on his door to check if he was there and if there was anybody else hiding in his room. 

At that point Kei wondered what they would do if they actaully had found someone hiding. Akaashi didn't seem to be holding anything meant for self-defense, and Kei's gun was a secret to most of the staff since apparently, it wasn't allowed. But nothing happened, no one emerged from the shadows, and Akaashi left soon after. 

Kei walked out to the balcony, no longer seeing the lights from the room above him shining on the water.

_That was Daichi's room._

What was this? Some personal vendetta? Or some random killing? Was he safe? Was anyone safe? Who did it? Were they still on the ship? 

All these questions Kei had, and he had no one to answer them. There was one thing he knew for sure though. There was one fact that could not be refuted by anyone or anything anymore.

_Daichi is dead._

_Someone had killed him._

_And Kei needed to find out who did it._

\----------

It turns out Kei had fallen asleep on the floor the previous night, so when he woke up, all his muscles were sore and he felt sick out of his mind.

He sat up and tried stretching to relax some of the muscles, but of course that only did so much. He decided that he was going to take a bath and then change before he got breakfast.

As he got out some new clothes from his suitcase, he noticed that the clock on his wall was telling him that the time was already 1pm.

His eyes widened as he realized that he had slept through most of the day, and he groaned when he realized that all of that was for nothing since he was still feeling tired anyway.

He rolled his eyes and got into the shower, determined to allow the cold water to wake him up properly. 

As the water hit his bare skin, a chill ran up his spine and he was forced to remember all the events of last night for a split second. He saw _his_ limbs sprawled around as if the person who killed _him_ had no regard for _his_ dignity at all. But it was only for a split second.

He didn't know why, but he suddenly started thinking about what he was going to have for breakfast, or...lunch, since it turns out he had spent the whole morning sleeping. He thought about getting more donuts, more brownies, maybe sneak in a slice of chocolate marshmallow pie.

He turned off the shower, getting ready to shampoo his hair, but the cold air around him made him snap back to the reality that _he_ was dead.

**Daichi was dead.**

As he got used to the cold, thoughts of the arcade on the ship now entered his mind. The games he could play up there looked like they were for kids, but they could be fun after all. First-person shooter games, luck-based games, claw machine games, dancing games, and other things. 

The warm embrace of the suds and the lather only invited these thoughts even more, thoughts of anything else he could think of, anything else except _that._

He was about to place the soap back into the soap dish, but it slipped from his hand and onto the floor. He bent over to pick it up, but he accidentally hit his head on the faucet due to the constant swaying of the ship.

The resounding boom he heard when he bumped his head echoed in his brain and shook the rest of his body. He saw his face, but it wasn't enough, he couldn't remember. It's not like he didn't want to remember, he just _couldn't._

He ran out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel, dripping water everywhere, and almost slipping on the polished floors. He didn't know why, but he needed to feel something, he needed to remember.

He stumbled onto the vanity, looking at himself in the mirror and feeling the cold glass cover of the desk. Numerous items caught his eye, cotton buds, a makeup brush, a comb, a _nail file._

_~~~⚠️!!!SLIGHT GORE/SELF HARM WARNING!!!⚠️~~~_

It was perfect. All he needed to do was drive that nail file through his flesh and he would be able to remember. He grabbed it from the cup that it was resting in, knocking over multiple other things on the vanity in the process. 

With shaking hands, he raised the nail file, ready to bring it down onto his hand.

The dull pain in his head started growing, but it wasn't enough. The nail file would be enough. And if it wasn't, he would use the mirror. If the mirror wasn't enough, he could look for scissors. If that wasn't enough-

...

A moment of clarity washed over him. He could almost feel a blanket of iron being lifted off of him. He dropped his hand back onto the vanity, completely missing his hand, but he did it on purpose. 

He still couldn't remember though, and he knew he needed to feel something. 

He rummaged through the drawers of the vanity, looking for something. He could already feel the disorder coming back. He breathed a sigh of relief after finally finding somethig he could use, scissors.

Yes, he needed to feel pain, but he didn't have to go so far as stabbing himself. He opened up the scissors and rested one of the blades on his arm, near his shoulder. 

He took in a deep breath, trying to calm his mind once again, but the same clarity from before couldn't be brought back that easily. Having no other choice, he dug the blade into his arm, trying to go deep enough to make it bleed, but not too much that it couldn't heal over quickly. 

_~~~⚠️!!!WARNING END!!!⚠️~~~_

Suddenly, he remembered everything. From jolting awake, to the scream, to the crowd, to the _body_ , no memory was left unrecovered, and his brain didn't feel so clouded anymore... 

But the sadness was overwhelming.


	7. Pick Up The Phone

Kei made his way to the common hall again, feeling especially sick as he passed by the weird staircase. He ascended as quickly as he could, to put some distance between him and the cursed stairs. 

Every time he felt like he was going to slip into the blissful yet chaotic mindset he was in a while ago, he pressed down onto the area where he had cut himself a while ago. After that, it always just magically went away.

He did find out, however, that the closer he got to the common hall, the less he had to press on his wound. 

It was noon, so the difference between the lighting inside and outside didn't make much of a difference as they both used the natural sunlight to light up both places. Because of that, Kei was able to easily adjust himself as he stepped in and scanned the area. 

There were considerably less people in the hall than there were the previous night, he was pretty sure he remembered who was there and who wasn't. He didn't forget that easily, not when his life's work depends on seeing and remembering details. Kei figured that it was because everyone was too scared to leave their rooms once they heard about the murder. 

The expressions of the people around him contradicted what he had thought, however, as most people were smiling and laughing as if there wasn't a rotting corpse on board. 

He decided he wanted a break from all this weirdness, so he took out his phone to call Kageyama, _again_. He needed to know what his friend thought about all this, but he had no such luck as he heard it go straight to voicemail. 

He really doubted that Kageyama would be busy, since he wouldn't go and do an activity without inviting him, so he thought for sure that the guy was still asleep. 

He sighed, sitting down and closing his eyes on the same couch that he had sat at the night before with the Three Blind Mice, confident that they wouldn't sit next to him because they were nowhere to be found. 

But someone else approached him this time. A guy with sandy blonde hair, almost exactly like his but just a bit off, approached him with a concerned look on his face.

"Uh, hello," the guy said tentatively, "Is something bothering you?"

Kei opened his eyes partly to check on who was bothering him this time, hoping that it wouldn't be anyone who was there to annoy him, and found a guy he had never met before. 

"Hm? Oh it's nothing, my friend just won't pick up his phone, probably slept in," Kei answered, not wanting to worry the stranger any more. 

And he didn't, but the guy only took that as an invitation to continue the conversation. He sat down to Kei's right, crossing his arms and bouncing his legs up and down. To someone else, it might have just been impatience or anything else, but to Kei, it was guilt.

"Is something bothering _you_?" Kei asked the stranger, in an almost interrogating manner.

"Me? Oh, I'm waiting for my friend too." he replied.

Kei had gotten even more suspicious hearing that answer. Could the guy not have thought of any other excuse? He was probably just sitting down beside him because he knew that Kei was a detective and was planning to kill him-

The door opened as another guy with a buzzcut, different than the one he had met before, entered the hall. Numerous people looked up from their conversations at the sound of the door, and immediately went back when they realized that it wasn't anyone they wanted. 

The guy scanned the room for whatever it was he was looking for, until his eyes finally settled on the guy beside Kei.

"Hisashi!" the guy called out, jogging over to them. 

"Finally! What took you so long to get here?" the blonde guy replied to the guy with the buzzcut. 

"Dude, I was literally waiting outside the door."

Kei tuned out their conversation, already planning to leave and personally show up at Kageyama's door the moment he could see an opening.

But he should've left immediately, because now the two had decided to strike up a conversation with him. At least now, they were courteous enough to not overcrowd him or yell in his face.

"Hey, maybe your friend's also waiting for you outside the door or something," the blonde said. 

"Nah, I was the only one out there. Didn't see anyone on my way either," Buzzcut replied.

"Oh, it's fine. I'll just go check out his room after I get something to eat," Kei said, hoping that the topic would end then and there. It did take a few more moments for them to reply, but the two decided to continue the conversation anyway and introduce themselves. 

"I'm Hisashi Kinoshita by the way. This is Kazuhito Narita," the blonde said, pointing to himself and then to his friend, who leaned forward to give a quick wave before leaning back again, "We weren't supposed to come here, actually. The cruise we were originally planning to go on just ran into some problems, so they offered to reticket us and here we are."

"Ha, at least you guys didn't force each other to come here," Kei laughed dryly, remembering the day that he was stuck out in the rain and Kageyama first invited him to go. Looking back, he supposed he wasn't forced. But it helped the conversation move along, so he had no regrets.

"Your friend drag you into this?"

"Yeah..."

"Sorry about that. If you didn't come, you might never have had to witness what happened last night."

Now that caught Kei's attention. It sounded like there was something wrong with that sentence. 

"What was that?" Kei backtracked, snapping his head towards the two. He wasn't even sure who had said it, but it was awfully suspicious, "How did you know that I saw the body last night?"

"Huh?" 

"You weren't there, so how do you know that I witnessed it?" Kei insisted, raising his voice ever so slightly.

"D-dude, chill out. Everyone on the ship's been talking about it since this morning," Kinoshita said, backing away slightly but still keeping close to try to show that he wasn't afraid of Kei.

"Yeah, you are Kei Tsukishima, right?" Narita asked. 

Kei sighed and buried his head in his hands as he had to process for a while before he realized that he had just made a fool out of himself. Of course he would be the talk of the town, he had stood there swaying for a while, maybe half an hour, in front of his comrade's dead body. People could take that many different ways, but he was clearly close enough to Daichi to stay there long after everyone else had left. 

It made sense now, why Kinoshita had even approached him in the first place and asked if something was wrong. The guy felt pity for him, even if he didn't know the full story, just the rumors that were passed around. 

"I'm sorry dude," Narita apologized, "We haven't been passing it along or anything."

"We haven't. I swear I only meant to check on you... you seemed down." Kinoshita explained.

Kei ran his hands up his face and through his hair for the second time in two days, removing his glasses and wearing them again when he was done. 

"I'm sorry," he said. 

"No, it's fine!" Kinoshita immediately defended, "We really weren't there last night, we just heard the scream. We didn't see you witness it..."

"We just went back to sleep after one of the crewmen told us to stay inside our rooms," Narita explained, getting two glasses of water from the tray of a passing waiter and offering one to Kei.

Kei declined it, reminded of what Oikawa did last night, taking a drink then spitting into the glass before placing it back onto the tray again.

He thought their explanation was believable, as he didn't see anyone else in the halls on his way to and from Daichi's room, after Hinata's scream. It had only been a while after that too before Captain Ennoshita had sent the staff to everyone's rooms to warn them to not leave their rooms for the roll call. So their alibis checked out.

"It wasn't... you who screamed, was it?"

Kei blinked.

"No no, it wasn't me. It was Hina- uh, one of the crewmates. He... found the body," he said, waving his hands in front of him defensively, not wanting them to feel any more pity. Besides, there wasn't anything that bad that could happen that would make him scream or yell that desperately. 

Overall, Kei sensed no fakery in their voices or in their faces. They were telling the absolute truth. Of course he couldn't ever be 100% sure. For all he knew, they could've been the ones who killed Daichi. But for now, he was sure they were safe. 

"I think he's fine by the way, the crewman. My friend, uh Kageyama, actually went and talked to him last night," Kei said, thinking maybe they might worry more about Hinata when they find out he was the one that screamed. 

"That's great! He sounds like a good guy," Narita said, before taking a sip from the glass that he took a while ago.

"Yeah, Kei!" Kinoshita agreed enthusiastically, using Kei's first name casually despite having just met him, "you should introduce us to him when he's not busy sleeping in."

Kei gave a weak chuckle at Kinoshita's joke as the guy turned to his friend for the other glass of water.

Kei really did wish Kageyama hadn't slept in today, as he was feeling so alone after what happened last night. Surprisingly, even though he was feeling bad however, he wasn't feeling downright depressed, for whatever reason, like something was willing him to not feel sadness. 

Even still, it would have been nice to have Tobio to talk to. If only he hadn't slept in so late. What did he even do last night that could have knocked him out this hard? Could he really be in such a deep sleep that he couldn't wake up to his obnoxious "I'm A Barbie Girl Remix" ringtone?

That couldn't happen. Kageyama was a light sleeper, he could hear almost anything even if he was unconscious. You could literally be as still as a statue beside him and he'd hear your heart beat and force you to leave so he could fall asleep. 

So why wasn't he picking up?

_Why wasn't Tobio picking up?_

"Uh, guys," Kei said, starting to stand up from the couch, ready to run to Kageyama's room to check on him, "I-I might... I have to- I'm gonna g-go som-"

"Kei? What's wrong buddy, talk to us," Kinoshita said, but Kei could barely register whatever it was the guy was saying.

He needed to get to Kageyama. Maybe if he could get there in time, he wouldn't have to end up **dead** like Daichi. He _can't_ die. Not like this. It was too stupid for him to die on a low-rated cruise ship in the middle of the sea with no one to be able to determine who had killed him. 

Well, Kei _says_ no one is able to determine who had killed him, but this was literally what Kei was trained for. He was trained to be able to solve and fight crime, and yet he couldn't even protect both his friends. 

He staggered towards the door, running into people and objects along the way. He muttered halfhearted apologies to those he passed by, knowing what a sight he was to behold, but they all smiled pitifully at him, telling him in gentle whispers that it was alright, and that they were sending their condolences to him. 

It was frustrating, they didn't even know that Kageyama, his best friend, was probably already dead in his own room right now, and all they could do was smile and offer their apologies.

But Kei didn't need apologies, he was going to save Kageyama-

***SLAM***

The door from the kitchen to the hall burst open, and in walked three energetic personalities with very energetic expressions, well some more energetic than most. 

Hinata Shouyo, with a tray of buffalo wings in his hands and a wide smile on his face,

Hitoka Yachi, with two pitchers of lemonade in both hands and a content smile on her face,

And Tobio Kageyama, with a tray of spring rolls in his left hand, numerous dipping bowls balanced on his right arm, and a plate of salad leaves on his head. And to top it all off, there was a scowl on his face;

The three waltzed into the room, blissfully unaware of Kei's near panic attack, as a now furious Kei Tsukishima marched over to his tall, black-haired best friend, feeling more than ready to throw hands.


	8. Break

Hey all, it's been a while since I've posted another chapter to this story. Honestly, I guess I just don't like how it's working out. I feel like I've forgotten what this story was meant to be about in the first place, and I kinda don't know how to continue it, even if I've already mapped the whole thing out. I love the universe and I love the story that I've planned, but it seems like it's just meaningless filler chapters over meaningless filler chapters. And as if that wasn't bad enough there are just so. many. _plot holes._ I've also been thinking about orphaning this work or just deleting it altogether, but again, I just don't know. To anyone who has been waiting for an update until now, hoping that I'd continue, I'm really sorry for giving up, but yeahhh that's all I've got. Cheers!


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